this post was submitted on 27 Feb 2026
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I'm not talking about the world outside Britain but rather Britain itself. There's no culture or history. There's barely any politics or economics. I understand the government is supposed to be rewriting history, changing the language, etc. but even Nazi Germany wasn't as stale and lifeless as Oceania. The whole society is illogical and devoid of human character. Nothing feels real; everything is empty and dull.
Which is the point since Orwell is perpetuating the "poverty cult" myth of the early USSR but if you know literally anything about human civilization or socialization you know intuitively that Oceania is impossible as a society. It literally could not exist.
Strange, I always considered the absence of human life as a representation of fascism consuming and annihilating every aspect of humanity until all that remains is a stale, dull husk. Plus, if the state is attempting to rewrite history, then destroying culture and tradition seems like a wonderful way to accomplish that goal. Especially if you replace those foundations with those provided by the state, since we hear that the Proles enjoy some forms of 'entertainment' and escapism that are entirely meaningless and state controlled.
Wouldn't a world like that innately be horrifically alienating, especially since Winston isn't even a regular citizen, but a party bureaucrat that is alienated from both the State leadership and the general populace? He's essentially John K in The Trial, Winston's entire life is illogical and devoid of humanity.
Nazi Germany had only six years to form their idealized utopian society, which is barely anything when you're working in a pre-digital world. There was barely any time to do any re-writing or elimination of centuries old traditions, religious beliefs, and community in comparison to the Airstrip which has had nearly thirty years of isolation at minimum. I wonder if Nazi Germany would devolve to a similar level once they were one hundred years into their thousand year Reich. Once the external colonies were all but barren and the state built on worshiping Hitler as a god began to consume itself.
The issue is that Oceania isn't replacing anything.
Actual fascists do try to erase history & culture to rewrite/reshape the national identity but they also try to replace it with a new national identity. Orwell's Oceania hasn't done this. It's destroying its own society without replacing it with a new one.
Would you not say that the State effectively replaced British culture with a perpetual state of emergency and war fervor? With the two minutes of hate, “prisoner of war marches”, war speeches, gamified recruitment and scrap drives, and other emotional outlets, the Airstripe’s culture is essentially an endless Total War, reminiscent of either a late war Germany or Bushido principle. The national identity is war, where nothing matters other than beating the enemy, even if that victory is a purposefully futile task.
We also do know that the nation has vestiges of a civilian culture since Winston mentions the proles consuming football news, sports magazines, mindless pornographic hedonism, and television programs, it’s just that Winston doesn’t partake since he feels alienated from that hollow culture since rewriting the past is his job.
Honestly, I understand what you’re getting at, though I don’t think that culture is inherently necessary to fascist states. The modus operandi of most fascists is an aestheticization of politics that permeates every aspect of Oceania.
Who needs culture when you have porn and your two minutes of hate? That is your culture.
The fascist state doesn't need culture but a human society does.
Nevertheless I see your point and I do partially agree, I just think Orwell exaggerates how much of human identity is annihilated by a fascist system. The bourgeoisie - even a fascist bourgeoisie - still want to preserve some kind of art and history even if it is heavily sanitized and revised to fit their absurd narratives. They are still humans themselves, even if they seem to hate everything good about humanity, and so still need a culture to enjoy for all the same reasons the common prole does. Something beyond just mindless entertainment, which is what Orwell gets wrong: fascism is high class, not low class. There is no poverty cult; there is an opulence cult. This is because it is a capitalist system. But Orwell was an idiot who believed Stalin and Hitler were the same thing with different names with no experience with either system or what they actually looked like beyond anti-communist propaganda. Looking at the content of his "critique" of the USSR it reads almost identical to Trotsky's, indicating exactly where he got his absurd ideas about Stalin from.